Promised that I wouldn’t let movie goers spend their money on Suicide Squad unless me, Darkmovienight, told you what a common human might think. And as much as I hate rating systems, I have to use one here. I give Suicide Squad a “B-” First off, what that rating means is that the film could have been much better, but by no means the trainwreck it was made out to be. Watching Suicide Squad was like practicing for something REALLY hard (1st half of the movie) and then cheating like a Russian Olympian and making all that practice wasted time. Critics that didn’t like the movie are just calling it out on cheating.

Give you some quick assurances: Leto was not a bad Joker but ends up low on the pile because the other actors who played the role were just amazing…also, they had more than 10 minutes of screen time (seriously, that’s what he got), so not enough to condemn or laud.

Harley Quinn was exactly what you want her to be. The character was perfect, but got just a bit annoying towards the end…just like you should EXPECT of Harley Quinn!

Will Smith brought his A-Game, so he wasn’t just collecting a paycheck. The other actors, did what they did and we’re likable or not shown enough to be cared about.

The action was fun but honestly, there was not enough and they could have been far more creative with these characters than they were. Yes, it was funny, but not hilarious. If you’ve read the comics, then you’d know the Squad is NOT zany and have your expectations set to “chuckle worthy” .

Something I loved was the films use of music for each character. Well done Mr. Ayer on that choice. Also, the cinematography during the scenes with the Joker were awesome. Really for the first time, the audience got to feel what it was like to experience “Joker Gas”, but not the laughing kind. I hope it’s done again in the Ben Affleck’s solo Batman films.

My problems: pacing. Too long to explain here, but the 3rd and 4th act seemed like they had pages ripped out of the script. Ayer should have known better but I felt his odd pacing like in his film Fury. Also, as subject material goes, I honestly don’t feel the need for gore and violence just for the sake of it, but I bet you anything that they heard people complain Batman vs. Superman was too dark, they made this film a hell of a lot lighter. Which in Suicide Squad‘s case was a huge mistake. This should have been Deadpool level violence, cursing, and R Rated. Deadpool is just an antihero, the Squad is full of VILLAINS. They deserved to be let off the leash but there had to be a knee-jerk reaction from DC’s last outing.

Lastly, I have to say that DC is confused. They released the movie for review and the critics murdered it. Most companies that know a film will be a critical disaster put a hold on reviews until the day of release, but DC didn’t do that. What that tells me is that test audiences liked what they saw and DC let the reviews go out normally. When they came out atrocious, but test audiences enjoyed it, they just don’t know what the hell to do.

Didn’t have time to read my fancy words? Read this summary.

So, B-, if you are interested, go see it. You’ll have fun and come out and look for the Suicide Squad comics, and in my opinion, that’s the true success of a comic film.